Kathynmarissa Earns BC Spot With Flower Bowl Win

Michael Caruso and Michael Dubb's Kathynmarissa captured her third graded stakes of the year in the $500,000 Flower Bowl Stakes (G2T) at Belmont Park and earned a trip to the Breeders' Cup World Championships at the end of the month. The 5-year-old daughter of American Pharoah out of Chilean group 1 winner La Dalila has been the model of consistency since joining trainer Chad Brown's barn last year. Since that change, she's won four of her five starts going back to August 2025. Her other victories this year have been most recently the Diana Stakes (G1T) and the Modesty Stakes (G3T) at Churchill Downs. In the Flower Bowl, she left the gate as the 6-5 favorite. Jockey Jose Ortiz gave the mare a patient ride, biding his time in midpack throughout most of the 1 1/4-mile race that went in early fractions of :23.64, :48.29, and 1:12.15 on Belmont's firm inner turf track. In deep stretch, she unleashed the same late kick she showed in the Diana and powered past a driving Sunlit Uplands (IRE), who was second. Kathynmarissa won by three-quarters of a length and stopped the timer in 2:00.58. She delivered the third win of the day for Ortiz and Brown's second win on the card. "So much heart," Brown said. "Pace was against her today a bit, and the runner-up had the jump on her, and this filly didn't have to get there, but I just think the last 70 yards was just heart for this horse. And that's what I see in the morning, she has a lot of heart." The Flower Bowl is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In race that provides an automatic, all-expenses-paid entry into the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T), which will be run at 1 3/16 miles Oct. 31 at Keeneland. Don Alberto Corporation, which bred Kathynmarissa, bought La Dalila at the 2014 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale carrying her first foal by Violence out of Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency's consignment. The mare's second foal would be the Empire Maker daughter La Poetisa, who won the 2020 Las Oaks (G1) and ran second in the 2021 El Derby (G1) in Chile. Kathynmarissa, La Dalila's fifth foal, sold for $200,000 during the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale to HR Bloodstock out of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment. She started out racing for Dubb and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. At 3, she won the 2024 Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational Stakes and ran second in the American Oaks (G1T). She made only two starts in 2025, getting her first win for Brown that year in an Aug. 28 allowance optional claiming race. Brown said if the mare is healthy, she will definitely contest the Filly and Mare Turf. "Although her season got cut short last year just with one run, which was disappointing, Mike's always very patient," he said. "I think now it is on to the Breeders' Cup to see who comes over to face her. Distance should be good, 1 3/16 miles, gets a slight cutback off this race and seems to be a trip that works for her between 1 1/8 miles and 1 1/4. So, we'll see how she takes to Keeneland."